Billionaire heiresses to watch

When most people think of an heiress, they probably picture someone like Paris Hilton, the headline-grabbing celebutante who has appeared on our celebrity list three times since 2004, spent 23 days in jail and still makes headlines for losing her phone. Or perhaps they think of the tragic story of Casey Johnson, Johnson & Johnson heiress and late daughter of Jets owner Robert Wood Johnson, who struggled with diabetes and was involved in frequent scandals involving accusations of robbery and drug abuse. She died on Jan. 4 at age 30, making front-page news on The New York Post and other tabloids.

But beyond the headlines one discovers a breed of heiresses who choose to live a lower-key life, spending much of their time trying to live up to their family's legacy and working to make a difference behind the scenes.

In our latest annual list of notable heiresses, we've focused on these impressive women, placing more emphasis than in the past on their passion to make a difference, in their industries and elsewhere, rather than their fame or fabulousness quotient. Some well-known women made the cut like daughter of Donald Trump, Ivanka, 28, who in March was named spokeswoman for a new U.N. campaign called Girl Up, which is supposed to recruit young women here to support U.N. programs for girls in developing countries. But so too did several very low-key, never profiled, women. All of the heiresses are also involved in some sort of charitable giving, a requisite for this year's list.

For the vast majority of these accomplished women, their fathers or uncles served as inspiration, driving them to work harder, go after something they love to do and achieve their own success.

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"My dad is very down to earth, and I view him as a creative genius, and I am very proud of that," says daughter of Ralph Lauren, Dylan Lauren, age 36, who herself has merged fashion, art and pop culture into her own high-end candy story, Dylan's Candy Bar, now one of the largest candy stores in the world. "For me, it's not about the money. The money allows me to be charitable and give back. What I've really learned being his daughter is how to be entrepreneurial and the importance of working hard." While her business drives her, Dylan is indeed an active philanthropist involved in the FEED foundation and the ASPCA. She recently held an event at her store to raise awareness for the ASPCA and encourage people to adopt animals.

For some heiresses, philanthropy is their vocation.

George Soros' daughter Andrea founded the Trace Foundation in New York after a trip to China where she was a volunteer English teacher. Her father, who is one of the world's most renowned philanthropists, reportedly gave her a small donation initially but has since let her run it and fund it as she wants. The organisation, which supports Tibetan communities, now has a large team of almost 40 working in China and New York. When speaking about some challenging physical conditions her foundation works under, Andrea sums it up by saying "the rewards of our work outweigh all the difficulties."

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Image: Dylan Lauren - Daughter of Ralph Lauren (Net worth: $4.6 billion)